VIOLETTE: “I was 4 or 5 when I starting volunteering with Little Helpers. I remember thinking, ‘It’s kind of a lot of work, but I like helping people.’ We picked up litter in parks, sang carols in hospitals, and made little bags with blankets, stuffed animals, books, and cards for kids who didn’t have what they needed. I’m 11 now, so I’ve been doing this for about 6 years. There’s a major project every month, and I help with most of those. The more things we do, the more open I feel. We meet a lot of people, and I've learned that even if a person is different from you, it doesn’t mean you talk different to them. You may have to communicate in another way, but you can still communicate. For example, you may not speak the same language as somebody else, but it doesn’t hurt to know some words from their language and some things from their culture. Sometimes when people don’t know a person, they may be afraid of them or just ignore them and walk away, but I feel that, even as kids, if we all work together, there wouldn’t be as many problems as there are now. Kids can do things to help the community: If you see someone getting bullied, stand up for that person or tell an adult. Maybe you can be a peer counselor at your school. Or if you’re around the city and you see litter, pick it up. Ask yourself, ‘What can I do?’ I’m open to more things now and I know more about the world. Now I get up in the mornings and think, ‘I gotta watch the news. I gotta check on my country.’”

PAT: “Little Helpers was started a few years ago with three moms who wanted to get our children involved in serving the community. A lot of organizations don’t take volunteers until they are 18 years old, but with Little Helpers, the parents and children work alongside each other, so they can start when they’re very young. We vet the organizations we assist to make sure they’re in good standing and that they’re really helping the people they say they’re helping; that way, volunteers don’t have to do all that research themselves. They can just show up and work, and the children get to see firsthand that one person or one small group can make a difference. They have an opportunity to interact with people they’ve never met, and their compassion for people grows. One of the most valuable things that has come out of this have been the conversations with our kids about what we’re doing and why. They ask questions and often notice things that are not even on our radar. They learn that they’re a part of this community and have something important to contribute.”

Little Helpers coordinated the efforts to get school uniforms and school supplies for Dacavien's family and are also working with Repairing the Breach Memphis to gather school supplies for children for the coming year, particularly students in the Alcy-Ball neighborhood who attend Hamilton Elementary, Middle, and High. See flyer below for weekday drop-off through July 30, 2016.

"My art strives to portray the strength, beauty and endurance of the human soul and to hold up a mirror to the viewer. This body of work, 'Comfort Women of WWII', is about the women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during WWII. Most survivors were shamed into silence, treated as war collaborators, never allowed to tell their stories, and never given atonement. As a female Chinese artist, these stories are deeply personal to me. I am using my work to bring to light the plight of the few known surviving comfort women so that they will no longer need to hide their stories and be ashamed or silent anymore. I hope my work will help empower other women around the world to talk about women's dignity, human rights, and the sexual violence so prevalent in today's world."

Faces of the comfort women, blood-stained bedclothes, men's trousers on the ground outside the door of the comfort station:

"Our family was homeless, once during my junior year and then again during my senior year. The first time, my mom got sick and ended up missing a lot of work because of her doctor's appointments, so we didn’t have money to pay the bills. We got evicted, our cars were repossessed, and we moved first into a hotel, then into a shelter. Even though I was glad that we had somewhere to lay our heads, it was rough at the shelter. I was working, trying to keep my grades up, trying to take care of my mom, watching out for my younger brother and sister, and trying not to let anybody know what was happening. I just closed up. I was afraid that if somebody on the outside knew about it, they would take us from our mom. But eventually I had to tell because sometimes I couldn’t get to school on time or at all and my grades were dropping. Once the teachers knew, they understood and helped every way they could. After a few weeks, my mom got better and started working again. That was good, but we were still in the shelter, which meant we were out really late every night waiting somewhere---usually McDonalds---for her to get off work. She had to be with us or the shelter wouldn't let us in. By the end of December that year, we were able to get our own place, things got better, and I got my grades back on track.

But then the next year, we got slightly behind on our rent---not much at all---and were evicted again. We went back to the shelter for another month. Both my mom and I were working late every night, but now we had a car, so my younger brother and sister just waited out in the parking lot in the car until I got off, then we picked up my mom from her job. By the time we'd get to the shelter after work, it would be 2 a.m. and we had to be out by 8 a.m., so we were up and going by 6 or 7 every morning. It was hard to focus in school because I was so tired. Sometimes I was absent because I just had to catch up on sleep. I didn’t want to let my school know we were homeless again, but eventually I told them. And again, the teachers were great. They paid for all of my senior things, my senior dues, and I made it through. There was a point where I looked around and knew I wasn’t the only one who needed help, so I started a club called B.A.S.I.C. (Brothers and Sisters Improvement Club) to help other students with their academics, self-esteem, leadership development, college and corporate world readiness, and community service. Leading that group helped keep me going. I couldn’t give up because I felt that now other people were depending on me.

Our family is back in our own place now and things are more stable. The Little Helpers organization is going to supply what my little brother and sister need for the coming school year, and things are good. I just graduated with a 3.6 GPA, and I’m headed to college in a couple of weeks. I was accepted to 36 schools, but I chose Morehouse in Atlanta. Some of my mentors took me to see the school, and I knew that’s where I wanted to be. I’m going to major in Business Administration and minor in Political Science, and I plan to come back to Memphis and give back to the community here. Maybe open a shelter for teens who are going through difficult situations, help them get involved in music and sports, and help them find mentors who will guide them in planning for their future. I think the experience of being homeless helped make me stronger and more willing to help other people and not judge them. We never know what someone else is going through."

“The song that probably means the most to me right now is ‘Saint Blues.’ When I was writing it, I couldn’t get it out of my head; it just kept running through my mind over and over. It’s about the struggle to make a decent living as a musician. Pay the bills, invest a little bit in yourself. It’s rough. I hear musicians talk about playing in the early 80’s and getting a hundred dollars a night, and that’s still true today. I also know what it’s like performing in a lot of places and you’re just pouring your heart out and you feel invisible because everybody is there for different reasons. Sometimes they’re there just to have a good meal. They’re listening to you, but you might not realize they’re listening. Saint Blues about doing what you love to do, but at the same time feeling the burn from it.”

Excerpt from Saint Blues:

Try to make a happy show, feed your wife at homeDay to day, week to week, still no money shownAnd I tell you I could die right up here on the stage aloneThey call me Saint Blues, it’s written on my guitarYou can call me Saint Blues, I’m a fallen starO help me, Saint BluesNo, I won’t be saving you.

I’m still living in a town that never had a chanceSaints and sinners, lonely winners, begging for romanceCome on, won’t you, won’t you, give me one more dance?They call me Saint Blues, it’s written on my guitarYou can call me Saint Blues, I’m a fallen starO won’t you help me, Saint Blues?No, I won’t be saving youNo, no, no

"I was a carpenter before I was disabled with macular degeneration. That was 25 years ago. Ten years after the diagnosis, I joined the Tennessee Business Enterprises for the Blind, and now I operate the vending machines at the Federal Building and City Hall. The hardest part was when I first found out I was losing my vision. I had the diagnosis, but then the second doctor confirmed it. That was tough. I had spent twenty years learning the carpentry trade and it was my time to turn around and teach someone else, but I had to quit. I couldn't pass that knowledge on."

"I'm on the baseball team at Manassas. They run the mess out of us at practice, but they want to make sure we're tight and that we're ready for the game. I'm about to start my senior year, and I'm hopeful about my future. I want to go to school in Atlanta and play college baseball."

“I try to make a difference in the neighborhood where I live. The kids bring me their report cards, and I give them a little money for good grades. There are seven I do that for on a regular basis. I tell them, if you can come over to my house every day to play, you can sit here and do that homework. If you got a problem with it, you can say, ‘Mrs. Smiley, can you help me with this?’ and I’m going to help you.

“If the kids need something and I’ve got it, I give it to them. If you come over here and it’s lunchtime, I’ll feed you. If I cook dinner and I got enough and you’re over here playing with my kids, I’ll tell you to come on here and get you a plate. I might not can give you a whole lot, but I can give you something to put on your stomach and I can give you something to drink. If I can’t do anything else, I can do that.

“You’ve got children around here who don’t have anything to start school with, so every year another parent and I set up in that field over there by the store and make sure they have what they need. Last year we sold donuts door to door in different neighborhoods, had a fish fry, put on a little carnival, and put the money we made into an account. We let it build up, we bought book bags and coats, and then we went to Dollar Tree and got crayons, pencils, spiral notebooks, composition books, and all the folders we could get. Last year we gave away supplies to 50 children in kindergarten through the fifth grade. Later on in the year when it got cold outside, I saw kids walking to school with short pants on, and no jacket and no hat, so I went to Dollar Tree and bought a box of hats. I sat out there one day at the stop sign at Morehead and Chelsea where they cross the street and passed out hats and gloves. Even though I haven’t worked in a while because of health issues, my husband supports me in the things that I do because he sees that I’m trying to help and give back. I told him, ‘Don’t be mad at me. I’m giving these to some kids that I know need it.’ And they appreciate it. All the kids around here, if they’re walking and they see me, they come over here and hug me and say ‘Hey, Mrs. Smiley, how you doing? Love you!’

“It’s hard to buy for so many. One idea I had was to put a box out at different places and ask for coats, jackets, and hats that people are not using. It’s going to get cold in a few months, and the kids are going to need them. They’re going to need socks and gloves too.”

"The thing that makes me happiest is helping my mom bake cookies. I started spending time with her in the kitchen when I was little, and she taught me how to do everything. Now, we make them every week for the Farmers Market downtown. They smell so delicious coming out of the oven that I just want to eat them right then---but I can't because they're for sale [*laughs*]. My favorite are the chocolate chip."

"My mom wanted me to have a 9-5 job and always used to tell me that I’d get into the music industry over her dead body, but I think it was inevitable. I’d been inspired by Billy Block while I lived in Nashville, and when I returned to Memphis, I began thinking about opening a venue for musicians to perform their original songs. We had our first songwriters’ night here at South Main Sounds in January of 2015. There were eight musicians that evening and about a hundred people coming in and out. The place has the feel of a juke joint and draws musicians from all over. We’ve had performers from fifteen states and the United Kingdom. It’s really rewarding to see young talent getting their start here; it always makes me smile to be a part of that. They bring friends and family, and everyone just enjoys the evening. Even when they’re not on the program, musicians will come in to hear what’s been played. South Main Sounds has grown over the past year and a half, and now we have shows the second and fourth Friday nights of every month. There's a lot of original work being done in Memphis, and we provide a venue for it. We tell people, There's no cover and no covers. Starting on July 30th, we'll have a weekly show on WREG-TV featuring performers from our songwriters' nights, with possible national distribution of the show in the future. Amazing music is still coming out of Memphis, and the world needs to know about it."

"It scares me a lot and makes me sad that people have to suffer from what terrorists do. If I could change anything about the world, I'd make it where there were not so many terrorists. When I grow up, I might become a missionary and tell people about God. I don't know if that would help, but maybe it would."